True Identity

Continued (page 2 of 3)

The exception: women who discover they have an affinity for a complicated style, but can execute it reliably and quickly. (It's hard to imagine Ivana Trump abandoning her froufrou updo for something a little more wash-and-wear.) "I know women who love a worked-on, va-va-va-voom big-hair look, with hot rollers," Pita says. "They've done it their whole lives, and they've got it down, boom!"

SO IT FOLLOWS, BOBS AND SHAGS ARE FREQUENTLY FOUND TO BE SIGNATURE STYLES

Because they work well on women with anything but ultracurly hair, bobs and shags have become to haircuts what the Cartier Tank is to watches. At the same time, the cuts are easy to customize to individual faces. You can have either style and still not look like everyone else.

The short-on-top, cascading-sides-and-back shag—popularized in the '70s by Farrah Fawcett and Jane Fonda— "is such a versatile look," says hairstylist Sally Hershberger, owner of the Sally Hershberger Downtown Salon in New York City. "I love the sexiness of the movement." Beyond the sexiness factor, the top-and-side proportions can be adjusted to flatter features or the shape of the face—thus making it adaptable to an astonishing number of women. It also looks OK "even when it's undone." As for having legs, it segues well into middle age and beyond, she says: Jane Fonda still has one, as does '60s and '70s sexpot Raquel Welch.

The bob with full or partial bangs "makes you feel secure, because it frames the face and you can dress it up or down," Normant says. (The bob was the most common signature look he saw growing up in France.) Hairstylist Garren, owner of the Garren New York salon in New York City, says he does "three versions of the Louise Brooks bob—one just below the chin, one just below the ears, and a longer one to the collarbone." It is, he says, a style with sophistication linked to an entire sensibility: "I have clients who have worn their hair that way their whole lives, and whose living room is something like red lacquer. Everything else in their lives is dramatic and slick and modern; that's why their hair is like that."

IF THESE STYLES DON'T SUIT YOU, KEEP LOOKING

Of course, some women march to a different coiffeur—and that's as it should be. "The person who has a signature hairstyle isn't worried about looking outdated or boring," says Pita.

A crucial point, he says, is that there are times to ignore conventional wisdom. He has a close friend "who has snow-white skin and always wears bright red lipstick and has long, stick-straight, unlayered hair that goes down to the small of her back, that she doesn't ever blow-dry. It's probably hard to imagine that it doesn't look freaky or goth or severe. But very severe things tend to look right on her." The woman had her hair cut into a pixie years ago, but "she knew right away" it was a mistake, he says. She grew it back, and she plans to keep it like that, according to Pita: "She says that if she feels it gets to be too much as she gets older, she'll do a long braid down her back." (Hey, it worked for Georgia O'Keeffe.) If she wasn't bold, she never would have adopted a look that, in fact, suits her beautifully.